When my daughters lived at home, they’d run interference for me. “Don’t watch that movie,” they’d warn when a preview came on. Or they’d say, “It was a good movie, but Mom can’t watch it.” They know I’m tenderhearted and have a tendency to carry images around in my mind for a long, long time. This is why they try to protect me from stories about sad animals, news reports about neglected children, and tales about the abused elderly.
But sometimes the stories still sneak by. I hear about broken marriages, natural disasters, and suicide bombers. Fighting church members, hungry toddlers, and drug addicted homeless people. Cancer-stricken friends, bankrupt small business owners, and wayward children.
And my heart breaks. It aches for every hurting soul that walks this broken world.
I know the answers—that sin has been wrapping its poisonous tentacles around our planet since Eve’s sin in the garden, and no generation is exempt. That we are engaged in a cosmic battle between good and evil that won’t be resolved until Christ returns. That people will continue to hurt, kill, and destroy each other until the Prince of Peace reigns over all.
I know that while all creation groans to split its death-stained exoskeleton and be clothed in the light and life of its original, sinless garment, we must endure a little while longer.
These nine life preservers of truth comfort me when I am overwhelmed, and I cling to them:
1. God never intended for mankind to experience sickness, loss, and death. He created the world perfect (Gen. 1:31).
2. He weeps with us, and we share in the fellowship of suffering (Rom. 8:17).
3. Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more (Rom. 5:20).
4. When the burdens get too heavy, we can cast our burdens on him, and he will sustain us (Ps. 55:22).
5. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4).
6. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).
7. One day he will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will pass away” (Rev. 21:4).
8. These momentary light afflictions are accomplishing in us an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17).
9. Eternity is forever. We do not lose hope, knowing that our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the glory that awaits us (Rom. 8:18).
And so we cry, crawl up into God’s warm embrace, accept the grace he extends to us, and press on.
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| This is my rescue dog, Winston |
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This devotion is an excerpt from Lori’s new book, Hungry for God … Starving for Time, 5-Minute Devotions for Busy Women. You want to connect with God, but in the craziness of life, it’s just not happening. You want practical, biblical answers to situations you face every day, but you don’t have hours to pore over Scripture.
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• If God already knows what he’s going to do, why bother to pray?
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• No one appreciates what I do. Why shouldn’t I quit?
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